Woman describes how teen she knew pulled gun on her during robbery

Just days after Henderson County Sheriff's investigators said 19-year-old Nicholas Pacilli shot into the woman's glass back doors and stole her purse, she wants to share the story of how she knows Pacilli, who, along with Dillon Schimmel and Javier Cervantes Jr., was charged in the case.

HENDERSON COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) - A 70-year-old woman, who has been a nurse for more than 40 years, fears for her safety after having a gun pointed in her face during a robbery in her home.

Just days after Henderson County Sheriff's investigators said 19-year-old Nicholas Pacilli shot into the woman's glass back doors and stole her purse, she wants to share the story of how she knows Pacilli, who, along with Dillon Schimmel and Javier Cervantes Jr., was charged in the case.

"I haven't seen him in five or six years," she said. "But I once loved him like an adopted grandson."

She said Pacilli, wearing a make-shift ski mask, came into her home about 1 a.m. Jan. 27.

The woman was asleep when she heard what she thought was banging at her door.

"People know I'm a nurse," she said. "Neighbors know. I thought someone had come because they needed help."

But what she thought was banging was actually gunshots.

"I thought it was coming from the TV, but it wasn't. It was, 'pow, pow, pow, pow'. He put the gun right in my face, just basically inches away from my nose. He ran straight into the bedroom and grabbed my purse off my bed," the woman said.

She said years ago Pacilli was an honor student getting A's. But, she said, he got hooked on drugs and racked up criminal charges and an arrest record.

"I feel devastated at the fact I knew him," she said. "I loved him. I tried to help him, and the fact that he could come back and do this to me, I don't feel safe in my home anymore."

Warrants said Pacilli stole the victim's purse, which contained checkbooks, credit cards and prescription drugs, including the Oxycodone she said she uses sparingly for chronic pain.

Pacilli's family said his downward spiral began with petty theft his father believed stemmed from wanting money to buy drugs. He said he could not reach his son and could not find anyone in the social services system who could help get him back on the right path.

Sheriffs investigators said since 2014, Pacilli has been arrested on such charges as breaking and entering, credit card fraud and possession of marijuana. Investigators said he's been in jail six times since 2014.

The victim, meanwhile, has mixed feelings about the 19-year-old she once knew. She cares about him and thinks the criminal justice system is failing teens strung out out drugs who need long-term treatment. But, at the same time, she thinks he and the two other men charged in the robbery need to face serious penalties for what happened in her home.

"I'm very much a victim. I don't deserve what happened to me," she said. "If anything comes of this, and he's convicted, he's going to go to prison. What's he going to do in prison except sit there?"